From the Founder
A Message from the Founder
Octopus Prime was created from both professional and deeply personal experience — from decades spent on both sides of the table.
Oleg Malkin, DBA
Founder & Strategic Adviser
Octopus Prime BFCO
Professional Background
International entrepreneur, private investor and strategic adviser with more than three decades of experience in banking, investments, M&A and cross-border business.
Having personally completed full relocations and built family and professional life across Ukraine, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Spain and the United Arab Emirates — Octopus Prime was created from experience gained on both sides of the table.
Banking & Investments
M&A Advisory
Cross-Border Business
Private Strategy
Inheritance Planning
Wealth Coordination
For more than three decades, I have worked in banking, investments, international trade, M&A, business management and strategic advisory. I have led financial institutions, built international companies, advised entrepreneurs and private investors, and acted as a principal in complex cross-border transactions — including the successful completion of a transaction valued at more than €500 million.
However, professional experience alone does not fully explain why I created Octopus Prime.
The real reason is that I have personally been in the same position as many of our clients.
Throughout my life, I have built and rebuilt my personal, family and professional life across Ukraine, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Spain and the United Arab Emirates. These were not temporary assignments or extended visits. Each move required a full relocation: establishing a new home, adapting to a different legal and cultural environment, arranging banking and residency matters, rebuilding professional relationships and creating a stable foundation for family life.
I have also established, managed and advised businesses operating across Ukraine, Russia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the United Arab Emirates, Spain and Hong Kong, as well as through a number of international corporate jurisdictions.
The Complexity of Transition
When a person relocates, invests or restructures an international business, many decisions must be made at the same time.
Where should the family live?
How should the business be organised?
Which jurisdiction is appropriate for the company and its real operations?
How should banking and payment infrastructure be arranged?
Where should the children study?
What insurance and protection does the family need?
How will tax residency affect the wider structure?
How should assets eventually be transferred to the next generation?
Each individual question may have a specialist capable of answering it. The difficulty is that no single specialist is usually responsible for seeing how all those answers work together.
A lawyer looks at the legal structure. A tax adviser considers tax consequences. A banker evaluates compliance. A real estate adviser focuses on property. An education consultant discusses schools. An insurance specialist considers protection.
Each recommendation may be technically correct within its own field, yet the client is still left alone with the most important responsibility: bringing all those recommendations together into one coherent strategy.
This is why Octopus Prime exists
We do not seek to replace lawyers, tax advisers, bankers, fiduciaries, insurance specialists, real estate professionals or other licensed experts.
Our role is to see the complete picture.
We help identify the questions that must be answered, select the appropriate professionals, coordinate their work and ensure that a decision made in one area does not create unexpected consequences in another.
Behind every corporate structure, residence permit, investment or property transaction, there is a real person and, very often, an entire family.
There are children whose education must be considered. There are spouses whose quality of life matters. There are businesses that must continue to operate. There are assets accumulated over many years that must be protected. There is a family legacy that may eventually need to be transferred to the next generation.
For this reason, we consider business, family, residency, property, banking, education, insurance and succession planning as interconnected parts of the same strategy.
Career & Philosophy
I also believe that exceptional service should not be reserved exclusively for the world's wealthiest families. A person who has spent decades building a business, accumulating capital and taking responsibility for employees and family deserves the same quality of attention, confidentiality and coordination traditionally associated with leading private offices.
My own professional career began at the age of seventeen. I progressed through every level of the financial sector — from an entry-level banking position to serving as a bank chief executive and a member of a supervisory board. Later, I built and advised industrial, investment, trading and online businesses operating across multiple jurisdictions.
This path taught me the value of discipline, responsibility and the ability to make decisions under pressure. It also taught me that many of the most expensive mistakes are made when important decisions are rushed, fragmented or taken without understanding their long-term consequences.
Our role is therefore not simply to accelerate a process. It is to create clarity, establish priorities and help the client make informed decisions without unnecessary pressure.
The world in which our clients operate is constantly changing. Regulations evolve. Banking requirements become more complex. New business models and payment channels emerge. Families become increasingly international. Children study and build careers in different countries. Businesses, assets and responsibilities cross national borders.
Experience remains essential, but experience without continuous learning quickly becomes outdated. That is why education, curiosity and the ability to adapt are fundamental parts of our philosophy.
Charitable work has also played an important role in my life for many years. It fundamentally changed the way I think about business and responsibility. It taught me that the value of a decision cannot be measured only by its financial result, but also by the effect it has on people, families and the future.
Why I Created Octopus Prime
I did not create Octopus Prime solely on the basis of what I had advised other people to do.
I created it from my own experience as an entrepreneur, investor, husband and father who repeatedly had to build a life and conduct business across different countries, legal systems and cultures.
I created the kind of international coordination office that I repeatedly needed myself.
One trusted point of coordination.
One strategy connecting business and family.
One team responsible for understanding the complete picture.
Because when a person invests in another country, relocates a family or restructures an international business, they should not have to navigate that journey alone.
Oleg Malkin, DBA
Founder & Strategic Adviser
Octopus Prime Business & Family Coordination Office